A new data protection regulation, GDPR, is coming into force on May 25th 2018. It applies to organisations that are based in the EU.

Monaghan Education Centre is sending out an e-mail to schools to outline our approach to maintaining continued contact and to make clear to all Monaghan Education Centre service users what their data rights are with respect to knowing:

a) what data Monaghan Education Centre collects on its service users;

b) what Monaghan Education Centre does with user data; and

c) how to obtain a census of what data Monaghan Education Centre holds on you as a service user.

The answers to these questions are straightforward:

a) Monaghan Education Centre holds no information on its service users other than that which was given on school contact databases or participant contact forms (name, address, institution, title, e-mail address, participant role etc); that which service users voluntarily put on their Education Centre website user account; information given to us on Expense Claims (expense details, bank paying-in details, and receipts); e-mails and correspondence; details of financial transactions made, for example course fee payments taken, and grants paid out to individuals or schools.

b) This limited amount of data that Monaghan Education Centre holds is only used for the following purposes: for having an up-to-date list of schools, event bookings, attendance rolls, course and project participants; for sending out communications, and staying in touch with schools, tutors and account users; for keeping track of who has paid course fees, when, and how much has been paid; for compliance with the Charity Regulator’s or Department of Education & Skills’ requests for information and legally-binding accounting purposes (e.g. knowing to whom Monaghan Education Centre has paid grants and expenses, when, and how much has been paid); e-mail addresses and contacts necessary for administering and carrying out Monaghan Education Centre projects and centre business.

c) If any Monaghan Education Centre service user would like further clarification on what data are kept on them personally, or, moreover, if any service user would simply like us to delete and dispose of any information we have on them, you can get in touch with the Centre at any time using the following e-mail address: info@metc.ie (please note, that Monaghan Education Centre will process such a request within legal parameters within 30 days).

Finally, please note that Monaghan Education Centre payments received as part of course fees are handled by third party banking websites, so we do not have any members’ PayPal/credit/debit card details at all; nor does Monaghan Education Centre analyse the cookie information that may be gathered on our website, nor do we sell any information on, nor do we give any information we have to third parties unless legally obliged to do so or unless the Education Centre network has a working relationship with relevant organisations for the provision of courses and projects. For specific courses or projects operated in collaboration with relevant organisation, such as support services, the Health & Safety Authority or Arts organisations, the collaborative partner is identifiable at the outset. Monaghan Education Centre protects the devices such data are stored upon, and is obligated to report to its service users any data breaches perpetrated.